The Future is Female

Gleaming acrylic fingernails glued into patterned, reptilian forms that emerge from the wall; barnacles and ceramic teeth encrusted in life-size human figures in decay; female anatomy rendered in neon light and boxing gloves; cement seeping through lace and paint; haunting words about the present overlaid on imagery of the past: surface tension abounds in this exploration of contemporary feminist art. The broad range of media and subject matter presented reflects the ongoing influence of the art of the Second Wave Women’s Liberation movement, which engendered unprecedented cultural change, shifting art-making out of the isolated studio and hallowed institutions into both more intimate domestic and broader public spheres. The ensuing transformation ushered in generations of artists addressing identity, the body, and the affirmation of personal experience. As critic Laura Cottingham writes, “[contemporary] art engaged with sexuality, conscious politics, gender roles,…first person video, autobiography, and performance is directly indebted to the space opened up for new media and new content by the feminist art movement in the seventies.”